The Skaggs-Files

John de Cobham, 3rd Baron Cobham
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

John de Cobham, 3rd Baron (d.1408) was the son of John de Cobham and Joan de Beauchamp. He was given a licence to crenellate by Richard II in 1381 and built a castle at the family seat in Cowling or Cooling, Kent.

Around 1332, Sir John married Margaret Courtenay, daughter of Hugh Courtenay, 2nd Earl of Devon. She died on 2 August 1385 or 95. In 1398 Sir John was exiled to Guernsey. Henry IV restored the estate and Sir John died in Cooling, 1408. He was buried in the church of St Mary Magdalene, Cobham near his wife.

Rochester Bridge Wardens
Sir John and Sir Robert Knolles (or Knollys), paid for the building of a stone bridge at nearby Rochester, finished in 1391. A bridge across the River Medway had been essential for traffic between London and Dover (the port for France and hence continental Europe) since Roman times. To ensure the maintenance of their new bridge, the two men instituted the Wardens and Commonalty of Rochester Bridge, two elected wardens with permission from Richard II to own land and use the income for the bridge. The Wardens and Commonalty received grants of land from Henry IV and Henry V, and the trust became very wealthy.

Rochester Bridge Trust still owns much of this land, which paid for new Rochester bridges in 1856 (now the west bound lanes of the A2) and 1970 (east bound A2). The trust also helped to build the Medway Tunnel (1996), a few miles downstream, which it owns and will take charge of in 2021.